Kundapur; Dec 24: Clarifying the unnecessary confusion created among the farmers of areca nut growers across for the last few days about the ban on areca nut Chickmaglur-Udupi constituency’s, MP K.Jayaprakash Hegde claimed in front of media personnel on Dec 22, Sunday night that central government has received no order of any kind from any quarter about the ban on areca nut and no question of banning areca nut in front of the government, he said.
He further reiterated that when the speculative talk about the ban on areca nut cropped up, he met union health minister Gulam Nabi Azad and secretary general of the department Deshiraj and asked with them is there any decision of banning areca nut in front of the government?, both of them collectively and clearly said that there is no such move as of now and there is no question of banning areca nut for the time being in front of the government, they clarified.
Ankul Gutka Company has filed a legal suit in Supreme Court about the ban on Gutka and at the time of hearing of the said legal suit, on the basis of some clarification questioned on the production of the product by the court, except some destructive aspects of the product in the report, there is no other mention about the ban on areca nut anywhere in the report, they said.
It is not good, efforts of analyzing all these ideas in different dimensions for political gain and create confusion among farmers of areca nut growers, MP said.
Though areca nut crop is being cultivated in 7 states of the country including Karnataka and Kerala, except Karnataka, rest of the growers have not poked their heads in the developments. Since prohibition was announced on sale and production of Gutka, as the presence of state’s attorney’s was not essential in Supreme Court activities of ban on sale and production of Gutka, state’s attorneys have been sent back by the Supreme Court. Except that no other conspiracy was taken place and he appealed to the growers to understand the facts.
Now in the inquiry stage of the episode, it was recorded that the sale and production of the Gutka was harmful. In the interest of state, for the conviction of the court, the chief minister and law minister have been asked to appoint judges from the state, who can evince interest in law in this episode and they have responded to this request, he said.
When NDA government was in power in 2004 at the centre, the report on areca nut claiming the bad effects came. When nobody had talked serious about the bad effect then, now when the same report has become public, approach of opportunism by singing in a different tune is not correct, he said.
About this report, scients have already been instructed to prepare a complete scientific report. Since there is one report from the food safety department researchers claiming there is no harmful effect in areca nut in any way, he appealed to the farmers of areca nut growers not to get confused and panicked. Now union ministers from our coastal region like Dr.Veerappa Moily and Oscar Fernandez are positively working on these issues, he said.
When discussed with union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar about the drop in areca nut import market due to country’s import policy, agriculture minister said that since the custom duty of import has been increased, the number of import of areca nut has been dropped, at the same time, it was observed increase in domestic market and said that congress led UPA government at the centre is always working for the benefits of crop growers and farmers and it will not go against the interest of the farmers, he added.
Kundapur CMC members like Chandrashekara Kharvi, Shridhara Sherugara, congress prominent leaders like Buddha raj Shetty,Chandrashekara Shetty,Vijayananda Shetty and among others were present.
